Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in North Carolina

Yes it is if you broke the lease and terminated early in most cases. The statutes specify that if rent is owed, the landlord can apply the security deposit to unpaid rent regardless of whether its in the lease or not.

The landlord must provide you with an itemized statement within 30 days after you surrender possession of the rented condo provided that the landlord had your forwarding address. If the landlord did not comply with the law, that is another question and you could sue for a refund of your deposit. However, the landlord will file a counterclaim for her damages for you breaking the lease, so you may not want to go down that road.

The landlord has a duty to mitigate her damages whenever you break a lease. Usually, the damages are limited to 2-3 months rent, but the damages could be less if the property was re-rented or depending on how much time there was left on the lease. It may also depend on why you broke the lease (the only lawful excuses are either domestic violence or that a tenant is in the military and received orders to report to a new duty station requiring the tenant to break the lease).